Winterguard is coming up soon! This is mostly going out to instructors, but what inspires you to pick a show for your group? Do you choose based on a song you hear first? Or do you choose a concept first and find music to fit? Maybe something completely different? I know a lot of designers take different approaches. What's yours?

Thats a good question and im still trying to figure that out! We're having a hard time this year deciding on music (and we have a month until we start practices!!!). Do we go with slow and graceful like last year which is what most of my girls love doing. Or go out on a limb and choose something crazy? I have several songs from several different genres and i just cant decide what to use..

This year things are weird for us in terms of the order we did things. Last year we picked a song first, then wrote everything around it. This year we had to design a uniform early to be approved by the boosters and to have a sample sent in. So now that we have the uniform, we're choosing a song/style around that. So i guess it just depends... every year is dfferent.

I will say that i usually base my final decision on the emotions i feel. If the song i choose doesnt give me a clear sense of emotion, ill pick something else.. I want to feel passionate about it from the get go.

Since we teach high school, the vibe of the group is different each year. We will observe the students through out the summer and the first few weeks in the fall, to get a feel of who they are as individuals. Then we choose the show that we think best fits the group. As I see it, I don't want to give a more upbeat, peppy group something slow and sad. They will sell the heck out of something more up tempo, IMHO. Then, we find the song. (I have about 20 to 30 different songs in my pocket that I keep for winter ideas) Then we pass it along to our costume designer, who gives us our color choices, and everything usually falls together after that. We listen to the music NON stop. Block out the features in the music and then write. Usually we write drill and work together... most of the time.

Our show is picked and we are ready to roll with it. Just a few more weeks, then it's WINTER! Whoo!

Jen- That is very true about student personality. We struggle with this each year also. Even though we have a very peppy group theres also a difference between personality and what the girls are comfortable portraying as a performer and thats where we're stuck at right now. Its surprising how night and day those 2 things are. Im jealous that you guys have your show picked already lol.

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